Aanensen: Go to arbitration
Ian Prescott iprescott@trinidadexpress.com
Thursday, May 3rd 2007
omitted: Chris Birchall, right.
Bruce Aanensen, the newly-appointed chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), is urging both the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) and national footballers to get an arbitrator to settle the current dispute between the parties over World Cup sponsorship money.
Aanensen was manager of the T&T national team, the Soca Warriors, at last year's FIFA World Cup in Germany. He said it is imperative that the dispute, which has raged on for six months, be settled promptly.
"Go to arbitration," he suggested, when contacted by the Express on Monday. "Let the players' representatives and the T&TFF agree to an arbitration panel and have the matter settled immediately. Each side will present their case to the arbitration panel who will make a ruling. Both parties just have to agree to abide by the ruling."
The retired banker said that as far as he is aware the dispute stems from the cut in World Cup profits which the Federation wanted to give to the players, and he provided an account of some of what was happening behind the scenes.
"Jack (Warner) had promised to give the fellas the spreadsheet from the sponsorship and donations. At first it took a while, and when they finally did get the figures, the fellas (Soca Warriors) thought it was inaccurate. They had questions about a million-dollar donation from Republic Bank which they said was not listed, and they also questioned the low contribution from e-bay.
"Secondly, they argued that the T&TFF had shown a whole list of expenses which was to have been deducted before the profits were shared. After the deductions, they were to be given $141,000 to split up."
Aanensen suggested that the players have a case with their latter query, since there was a document promising them a percentage of earnings.
"The document suggested that whatever the T&TFF got, 30 per cent of that was to have gone to the players. It had nothing about deductions at all."
Aanensen, who has his own problems with West Indies cricket, said that regardless of who was right or wrong, it is now time to settle the matter, as after playing in and making such a favourable impression at the World Cup, it was imperative that Trinidad and Tobago send their best team to the June 6-24 CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States.
The players who are challenging the T&TFF over their share of the World Cup profits have not been selected on the training squad for next month's Gold Cup.
"The purpose of the Gold Cup is to give teams a guide of where they are before they go into the World Cup qualifiers. If we go into the Gold Cup playing with a second-rate team, it won't make much sense. If there is indeed a blacklist, I don't think it is in the best interest of Trinidad and Tobago football at all," Aanensen said.
"We have guys like Chris Birchall and Kenwyne Jones who are just 22. To condemn these fellas at that age from international football is not good at all for football in the country," he exclaimed.
